By Danlami Nasir Isah
The Minister of Works and Housing, Babatunde Fashola, has justified Nigeria’s investment in Shelter Afrique, stating that the Federal Government invested over $30 million, or N14.1 billion in the Company to provide affordable housing in Nigeria and Africa.
The Minister, while speaking at the 46th Annual General Meeting of Shelter Afrique, which held in Abuja recently, stated that the investment under review made Nigeria to acquire 15.8 per cent of shares in the Company, which is owned by the 54 states of Africa.
Fashola noted that the investment by Nigeria has made the Company, which was struggling for funding in 2016, to be in a better place in providing affordable housing for Africans.
“Beyond financial capital, Nigeria has also contributed the most important capital, the human capital, by offering Mr. Femi Adewole to provide interim leadership for the Company at perhaps its most turbulent period,” he said.
The Minister added that there has been an increasing private sector participation in the delivery of housing types for low and high-income earners.
He said the government has been able to provide reforms in the Company, with the removal of the condition for a 10% equity contribution by a mortgage applicant from the Federal Mortgage Bank of Nigeria (FMBN) for a mortgage of N5 million and below. This is in addition to the reduction of the 15% equity contribution to 10% for mortgage applicants for homes with a value of over N5 million.
This, Fashola said, has helped to remove and reduce some of the barriers for access to funding for housing purposes.
On his part, President Muhammadu Buhari, while speaking at the event, stated that the size and scope of the challenge in financing housing and housing infrastructure has continued to cascade over the years, leading his administration to confront national infrastructure as one of its most important priority areas.
Buhari who was represented by the Minister of Finance, Budget and Planning, Zainab Shamsuna Ahmad, said there is an attestation on the massive investment and achievement made in the sector.
The Managing Director of Shelter Afrique, Thierno-Habib Hann, said the company is providing funding and non-funding instruments to financial institutions to address the issue of housing on the African continent as a whole.
In a related development, Nigeria’s Minister of Works and Housing, Babatunde Raji Fashola, has emerged as the Chairman of Shelter Afrique (SHAF).
The Minister who represented Nigeria at the Company’s 42nd Annual General Meeting, was announced the winner after an election held in Abuja, the nation’s capital.
Shelter Afrique is the only Pan-African finance institution that exclusively supports the development of the housing and real estate sector in Africa.
Responding to the acceptance of his nomination as the new chairman of SHAF, Fashola, said “the Nigerian government is transiting to another Administration soon, we are embracing change but this is what SHAF needs to make progress, the change comes in different shapes, like changing board members, new ways of raising funds, and having new directions.”
Fashola who took over the Chairmanship of Shelter Afrique from Zimbabwe’s Minister of National Housing and Social Amenities, Daniel Garwe, added that the organization needed to introduce new strategies in order to restructure SHAF and add more value in the African housing sector and related industries.